Man, 30, ac­cused of sex­ual crime

A man is due to stand trial later this year ac­cused of send­ing texts to an un­der­age girl ask­ing her to per­form sex­ual acts on him.

Scott Hotchkiss ap­peared at Hamilton Sher­iff Court last week and de­nied the al­le­ga­tion which dates back to 2015.

It is al­leged that be­tween Au­gust 1 and Septem­ber 13 of that year at Hotchkiss’home ad­dress in Grange Tower, Mother­well, he in­ten­tion­ally sent mes­sages to the girl, then aged 13, and re­peat­edly asked her to send naked images of her­self and asked her to per­form sex­ual acts on him.

The 30-year-old denies the charge and is ex­pected to stand trial on Au­gust 23.